I decided that it was about time to open a cheering thread for Gastão at MTF.

Huge potencial, huge progress this year.

"Pepe" is a former Top-10 Junior, won the Eddie Herr International, won a Futures event at the age of 16, was a training partner for Federer for two weeks, while he was 16 - Gastão, not Federer .
Injuries got to him, and prevented rapid success in the following years, but by the end of 2010 skies cleared for Gastão.
He is now coached by Jaime Oncins, former great Brazilian player, great support of Gastão's progression these last months.

He started the season outside Top-600, next week he will be into Top-300. Already won two Futures, got to the final of another. Got to the quarters of Bucaramanga CH and now is in SF of Guadeloupe CH, huge victories this week so far (Bollelli, Reister, Bohli). Next week Qualy of Miami.
I really think we'll hear a lot about him in the near future.

Is he better on HC or clay? This year so far he had the best results on HC.

He can do well on both surfaces because in Portugal he was used to clay but then he went to IMG and it is basically Hard Court. He considers Hard Court is favourite surface but he can do pretty well in each one.

Let´s hope he finds his best form in clay, so that i can see him in Estoril, hopefully in the main draw with a very well deserved WC. He can get great advice from his coach, a good former clay courter. His rise this year has been impressive.

Let´s hope he finds his best form in clay, so that i can see him in Estoril, hopefully in the main draw with a very well deserved WC. He can get great advice from his coach, a good former clay courter. His rise this year has been impressive.

I really hope for a good clay-swing, including some challengers, Estoril (surely a WC for him!) and RG Qualy in it. But first, he has a great chance to score good points at Recife hard-courts, next week. The field is weak, only one player, Chiudinelli, from top-100 level in the draw, but coming from injury (I suppose, since he has retired from a lot of tournaments recently).

Best of luck to Gastao in the clay season. Knew him from the junior days, when he and Berankis played a lot against each other. Rycka has said that Elias is his best friend on the tour and they have had lots of fun stories (like when Elias forgot the tickets to the Miami Heat game in a taxi). Good to see him climbing the rankings rapidly this year.

Deserved thread for a player with huge potential. I think he can end the season in top 150 (or top 120 at his best). Of course he will receive a WC to Estoril. And is only about 20 places from RG QD, witch is about 2 challengers wins, so I think there's no way Gastão will miss RG. For a guy statrted the season outside top 600, and in october was outrise the top 800, is completely abysmal!

Injuries was the only reason the he didn't to this good at the age of 17 or 18. But his still young, 20 years. I have so many faith in him. Top 50 in the future, al least, I think.

I followed Gastao a lot when he was first coming up, but he never really made it. Good to see he's having a second wind, and not falling apart like a lot of other top talents. I think Top 150 is a good goal for him, but we'll see how well he does in the clay court season

The draw in Brazil opened up quite a bit with the Top seed and 6th seed both falling in the bracket on top of him.

Gastao quit yesterday. Hard neck and a lot of heat took him down. He seemed also frustrated, since he lost several BP just before he quit. But his coach says he should be fine rapidly.
Let's hope so, and that this transition from futures to CH is sucessful.
Important clay season now!

Gastao just reached Belo Horizonte CH today, coming back from months on injury just weeks ago. His back are a problem for all his career, but let's Hope he deals with it well and reaches his potential, which is huge! Go Pepe, all the best for you!